BUSINESS DEALS

Oakbrook, Ill.-based Inland Real Estate Corp. transferred five properties with a net value of $56 million to a new joint venture with the New York State Teachers' Retirement Retail Fund. It will own about $570 million worth of Midwest neighborhood and community retail centers, says Mark Zalatoris, Inland Real Estate Chief Operating Officer. The $80.7 billion dollar pension fund already owns commercial real estate on the East and West coasts. “They had a hole in the Midwest and we are going to fill that for them,” says Zalatoris….New York-based IXIS Real Estate Capital Inc., formerly CDC Mortgage Capital, provided a $134.5 million fixed-rate, ten-year loan to Atlanta-based Gregory Greenfied & Associates Ltd. to finance its acquisition of a 1.92 million-square-foot portfolio of three malls, all named Central Mall, in Texas and Oklahoma….Robert K. Futterman & Associates LLC, New York, has expanded its business to serve food-related tenants….Developers Diversified Realty Corp., Cleveland, and Coventry Real Estate Advisors, New York, formed a joint venture to purchase Buena Park Downtown, a 1.1 million-square-foot property in Orange County, Calif., (including a mall, a lifestyle center and an entertainment center) for about $91 million…Also, Developers Diversified and joint venture partner Macquarie DDR Trust have acquired two community centers in Columbia, S.C., and Lewisville, Tex., for $79.2 million. MDT, an Australian Listed Property Trust sponsored by Macquarie Bank Ltd., planned to buy a Birmingham, Ala., property (valued at about $17.6 million) from Developers Diversified late last year. MDT will close on several more properties in the first quarter….Ramco-Gershenson Properties Trust, Southfield, Mich., plans to purchase two Michigan shopping centers (Hunter's Square and Winchester Center) for $128 million and seven Florida centers (Treasure Coast Commons, Vista Plaza, Martin Square, Marketplace of Delray, Village of Oriole Plaza, West Broward Shopping Center and Village Plaza) for $138.3 million….Coldwell Banker Commercial REP, an Irvine, Calif., affiliate of Real Estate

Partners Inc., has partnered with Hanley Brown Group of Irvine, Calif., to form a retail division selling shopping centers in the $1 million to $15 million range….Hanley Brown, meanwhile, has negotiated nine sales transactions for $65 million. All except one are in Southern California; the other is in Las Vegas, Nev…. Regency Centers of Jacksonville, Fla., bought hometown Plantation Plaza from Blackrock Retail Property Advisors for $13.7 million…. Pine Tree Inc., an affiliate of Lake Bluff, Ill.-based Pine Tree Commercial Realty LLC, in partnership with an affiliate of Chicago-based Syndicated Equities Corp., acquired 12 retail centers in Indiana and Kentucky. Pine Tree, which operates a branch office in Indianapolis, purchased the 211,660-square-foot portfolio from an affiliate of Williams Realty Group, also of Indianapolis….CB Richard Ellis Retail Services, a division of CB Richard Ellis, Inc., announced that Circuit City of Richmond, Va., has purchased a retail leased portfolio of eight properties totaling 425,000 square feet for about $60.5 million. Five are in northern California; two in southern California and one in Columbia, S.C.…Watt Commercial Properties Inc. in partnership with Australia's Centro Propreties Group, completed the acquisition of three power centers located in the greater Atlanta market area (totaling nearly 700,000 square feet) from Jamestown Properties. The centers are: Mansell Crossing, Barrett Place and Venture Point….Los Angeles-based George Smith Partners Inc. has arranged $79.5 million in fixed-rate financing for a new 500,000-square-foot retail space, which is part of a larger regional destination center in Southern California. The buyer was not named. The non-recourse fixed rate loan was priced off the 10-year Treasury plus 1.10 percent amortized on a 30-year schedule. The loan-to-value ratio is 80 percent….The Mills Corp. has refinaned its $500 million credit facility and $200 million term loan with a $1 billion unsecured revolving credit facility and a new $200 million unsecured term loan. Co-arrangers are J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. and Banc of America Inc. JP Morgan Chase Bank is administrative agent.